Keifer Thompson of Country Duo Thompson Square Talks About the Status of Third Album

The multi-platinum selling husband and wife Thompson Square duo return with a new single, “You Make It Look So Good,” and a new album according to Keifer Thompson.

NRR: It’s great that you are back with new music.

Keifer: You know it’s funny that we keep hearing that we’re glad you guys are back (Laughter), we took six months off because of the kid not like at Tibet for ten years you know. We’re really excited about this record and is just so Thompson Square and is one of those songs (You Make It Look So Good) we heard for the first time and we’re blown away and knew we had to have it and actually one we didn’t write. And is kind a odd that it felt so close to home without us writing it and really fortunate to have this one.

NRR: The single “You Make It Look So Good” was released last year and the album was supposed to be released during 2016? I was looking at Amazon and still no release date. Can you catch us up to speed what it is going on with that?

Keifer: (Laughter) well you know, certain things happen and waited see how fast the song would happen before we put a record out and were writing up to the eleventh hour that every song was good as it could be and kept falling into new creative modes and kept finding new life and new collaborations. So honestly, it’s a typical artist thing that it is never finished and when to stop.

I think between us and our label (Stoney Creek Records) we are trying to decide what’s best for us and sometimes that is not the easiest conversation to have and I think that is why we put off honestly to make sure the producer is right and the songs are right and everything else because we didn’t feel it was all together how we wanted to be represented. We put it on the back burner honestly for right now just because the whole combination of song producer and arraignments and everything else there weren’t what we wanted it to be out there because this is a very important record for us.

Obviously, we want this to be the very best record out we ever put out. That’s your goal every time and try to beat what you had before and living up to “Kiss Me or Not” is definitely a difficult thing to do sometimes but we evolved from then. We have Cooper now (their first child) and is a different emotional roller coaster we are living right now. It’s really fun.

I would say it’s been over three years since we had record out which is really ridiculous which is not all us that decided to do that and three years goes by like a blink and that’s the crazy thing. When the song slows on the chart, you need to put a album out every year and you can barely put a song on the chart now because the way business has changed. I would say it will be this year, the first part of the year. I would assume there are big changes with label right now so that will have to play out to see what we do and where we end up and all that stuff. There is a lot of factors right now.

NRR: The songs on the album were written by you and Shawna and some outside song writers?

Keifer: So far yeah, it’s been little bit of a mix where we wrote most of everything right now with other writers and we found really great outside songs we didn’t write. We’re always looking for the best songs and don’t care if we were the ones who wrote it or not. “Kiss Me Or Not” wasn’t written by us nor was this new one “You Make It Look So Good” and song kind a of wins.

NRR: Last year you performed some shows and this year have shows and you are performing some songs from the new album though the new album is not released?

Keifer: Yeah, absolutely, we been performing three or four new songs to kind of test of them a little bit to see what the crowd is digging on. It’s a really cool thing to do that because you get to see really first hand to see the crowd react to a brand new song a song they haven’t heard yet and if they are reacting to it, the chances are you are in the right frame of mind and wheel house.

NRR: How many songs supposedly to be on the new album?

Keifer: I have no idea. It could be ten or sixteen. Our label likes to be extra songs on the album, and I’m not sure that is necessary. I don’t know yet, it’s still a work in progress, and like I said there changes happening at the label right now and don’t know exactly what’s going to happen.

NRR: For this tour, are you headlining shows and a mix with others such as festivals?

Keifer: First three years we did major tours and kind of decided for us the most fun for us to do our own shows. So the last two or three years we did our own shows and this year will be the same thing. And we like headlining our tour, doing what we want to do and play as long as we want to and if we want to play two hours and we can go over two hours and not worry about getting on anybody’s toes. We just kind of prefer that system.

NRR: That’s great! Now that you have a kid you won’t’ be on the road to do a full tour of like sixty or ninety shows?

Keifer: We will do a full tour of about eighty to hundred shows this year. Cooper travels with us, and he loves it, and we have a nanny and all that stuff. The first few years we did over two hundred and fifty shows, and obviously, we won’t do that anymore but somewhere between eighty to a hundred and twenty shows is good for us.

NRR: With label going through changes is there another music video in the works for another song that you picked out?

Keifer: Well, that is the crazy thing man with a six month old that we haven’t shot a video for us and this kind of crazy to make your fans wait that long. But Shawna and I shot a little home video is home footage we made for us and our management saw it and played it kind of behind our backs and played it on TV. You know for a official video, that if this single keeps breathing one thing I want to do this first quarter is to a proper video for that song. Every song deserves to be seen and not just heard so that is one thing we definitely we want to do.

NRR: You and Shawna decided on a album title?

Keifer: No way, not even close.

NRR: With label changes everything is how to put it.

Keifer: In limbo.

NRR: A neutral state but you are still working on songs and logistics on shows?

Keifer: Yeah man, we’re working our heads off. Just because people don’t see singles coming out all the time and everything else, we are working in the background killing our selves writing on tons of songs, working on production, ideas and stuff like that. There are countless hours for what the final product will look like.

NRR: It’s good the new album will be release though is a bummer the change at the label puts a wrench on it

Keifer: Yeah.

NRR: Who produced the new album?

Keifer: Nathan Chapman (Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban and The Band Perry) is on there and produced “You Make It Look So Good” and really nailed it I thought. We are still figuring everything else out.

NRR: Are there anything in the works such as television appearances?

Keifer: We have kids book coming out this year called “Time To Get Dress” I wrote this past year. It started out to be a song, and then it turned into a book. There is another big change this year but cannot announce it yet bit will be really neat if it comes to fruition. A lot of stuff and will be a busy freaking year.

NRR: Well that is a good busy and I hope you can perform on some of the Country music award programs, too.

Keifer: Yeah, we did that once and was a lot of fun and hopefully we can do that again. We have to have a big single or songs before you get a chance to do that and hopefully, that would be great.

NRR: The single “You Make It Look So Good” is good so I don’t think there is an excuse there.

Keifer: I appreciate it. The song is great and our fans loving it and I encourage people to buy it and if they digging it then buy it and huge thing for any artist and radio is just that and everybody looks at that to see how much their selling and playing and stuff like that and make the road a lot easier when the fans are supporting your artistry via purchase. So I encourage all the Thompson Square fans out there if they dig it, buy it, learn it and when you come to a show we are all going to sing together and will be a lot more fun that way.

NRR: Just have to get this album released. Are there plans to perform at other countries?

Keifer: Yeah man, we had conversation last night about that and we talked about doing that for a few years now and we keep getting talked out of it and I finally told them (management) last night that this is what Shawna and I want to do so figure out how to make it happen. We have played overseas before, and we want to do a real tour over there. So maybe this fall we will go over there.

NRR: And your first show of the tour starts this month or next month?

Keifer: This month at Davenport, Iowa.

NRR: Is it a headlining show or festival?

Keifer: Is a headlining show at a casino.

NRR: Is good to know you have the new music ready to go but the other entities are putting a stop to it. So we are just waiting for the album to come out.